I agree with all of you. It is another deflection attack. It's just like before the elections, when things started shifting towards democrats gaining points, all of a sudden there was another terror alert to distract us from the valid points the democrats were making. The republicans are just great at setting up smoke screens, and it's time we started turning on the fan and shot the "stuff" back at them. Good job, ladies, all your points and comments are good.

Casey, thanks for bringing in the article from the Washington Post

Casey said:

quote:
So I would ask the group: Do you believe that the commander-in-chief powers can trump international law and domestic statutes in our struggle against terrorism? Why or why not?
Apparently Bush has used his "power" to trump international law and domestic statutes. Do you mean "can" or should be allowed to? My answer is, if someone died and made him King George or Dictator George he can and will use his power to do whatever he likes. But this is a democracy, a government by, of and for the people. The president is, therefore, a servant of the people, not the other way around. In a democracy there must be checks and balances or there is no democracy, and we need to stop pretending that we have one. There our provisions in our constitution to provide for the checks and balances even in times of war. Both the Justice Department and the Congress have been provided ways to participate in situations such as these. This has been addressed earlier in this forum. Personally, I believe that no one person or group of people is wise enough and altruistic enough to be trusted with that kind of power. That's why the checks and balances must continue, and we, the people, must ensure that they do.


My husband's summary for the day:

Item 1:

This is from an email I received from a friend. Read the article and decide for yourself if this is a boon or a bane.

Are You Being Tracked?
http://www.alternet.org/story/29890/


Items 2, 2A and 2B:

2 - this is a well presented article with arguments from both sides.
Inquiry into leak of NSA spying program launched
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/30/nsa.leak/index.html

2A - Doesn't really say anything new other than it is the NSA who is requesting the probe. It doesn't say who in the NSA did the requesting or whether the NSA was urged to request it. It also doesn't give arguments against the administrations actions.

Justice Dept. Probing Domestic Spying Leak
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&u=/ap/20051230/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/domestic_spying_probe_7


2B - A similar article to the one presented by CNN (Item 2), also includes comments by both sides.
Justice Dept. to probe leak of spy program
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10651154/


Item 3:

This item has absolutely nothing to do with Bush, NSA or spying - I just thought you might enjoy it, considering the name of this site: "Boomer Women Speak". I wonder, is she a member????

N.J. woman enjoys celebrity of being 1st baby boomer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20051230/ts_usatoday/njwomanenjoyscelebrityofbeing1stbabyboomer


Item 4:


Some lamentations from the Christian Science Monitor summarizing 2005.

Saying goodbye has never been so sweet
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20051230/cm_csm/yschorr30

quote:
The Iraq war was a tragedy in danger of becoming a disaster, as the Bush administration pressed its efforts to assemble a parliament and a government and avert a civil war.
quote:
It was also not a good year for civil liberties. We heard the disclosure of the wiretapping of Americans without seeking warrants and learned about the secret prisons abroad for terror suspects and the mistreatment of prisoners under interrogation.
That's all he could find for today.

[ January 03, 2006, 09:31 PM: Message edited by: Vi ]